KDanae Reads

So it's Tuesday which means it's time for a Top Ten Tuesday post. The lovely ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish gave us the topic of discussing 10 characters that are frustrating to us as we read. It didn't take me long to decide which ones to pick. So without further ado... Here are the 10 characters that I just cannot stand: 1. Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows. She is just pure evil and it made my stomach hurt to read the sections that involved her. I honestly think that in a way she is far worse than Voldemort. 2. Saruman from The Lord of the Rings . I didn't like how tricky he was and how easily he could make trouble for the hobbits. 3. Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice. Talk about a creeper! 4. Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair. Her conniving ways and her constant telling of lies embarrassed me in a way. I was disappointed in how a "lady" would do the things that Becky did all for

It's been a few ridiculously crazy weeks since I wrote last. The house we were living in was unofficially condemned due to mold, a crumbling foundation and not worth the repairs. So that sent my husband and I on an interesting adventure of finding a new place to live for fairly cheap, in a good area and close to the church. We finally found a great place in a brand new complex. When I say brand new I mean only one of the 4 buildings is actually finished. So cleaning, packing, moving and unpacking has dominated my life over the last two weeks and then I had to wait until we got our internet reconnected. And because of all of that I haven't been reading much at all. In fact, I have only read two incredibly short books (short as in less than 100 pages each) in the last three weeks since I finished Harry Potter. It makes me sad that I have been ignoring my books. Especially since reading is what relaxes me and it's what I need right now after a crazy quick move. And so since,

You finish a book or book series that you have lived in for days on end. It's a sad moment. It's a moment that every book lover dreads. It's a moment that caught up to me today as I finished the final Harry Potter book. 24 days ago I started reading the Harry Potter series for the second time. I started reading them one after another rather quickly. Part of it is because I normally read quickly. Part of it is I just love the stories so much that I can't really make myself slow down or even stop to take a break in the middle of them because I just don't want to. I loved every minute that I got to spend re-reading and re-imagining the stories and adventures of Harry, Ron, Hermione. For 24 days I loved getting to live in Britain, exploring Hogwarts and defeating evil for the whole wizarding world. And now, only a short two hours after finishing book 7, I miss that world. Those characters. One of my favorite things about the series is that the stories grow as the cha

The Classics Club is kicking the year off with a discussion on what our favorite or least favorite Classic is that we have read since beginning the challenge. I looked over the list of 10 classics that I have read so far and thought about how it would be nearly impossible for me to pick a favorite. Out of the 10 I have read so far... 6 of them were amazing, 1 was okay and 3 were just awful. So I couldn't pick just one favorite. But I could pick my least favorite. And that was... Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I don't know what it was but I absolutely hated that book. I had the hardest time reading it, but I did finish it. And yes, I was very excited and proud of myself. But I just couldn't get into the story. I thought the storyline was all over the place, the characters didn't make sense, the typos and incorrect grammar that my copy had irritated me to no end and the character of Becky Sharp made me want to throw the book out the window. No joke. And a

So, I am now a few days into the new year, still plugging away at the Harry Potter series, and still wondering what the year is going to look like for my reading habits and phases. I am starting to hit the point with Harry Potter where I am ready to be done and to move onto a new book or series. But I am in the middle of book 6 and just have book 7 left after that, so I really want to finish it rather than stopping so close to the end. I am, however, starting to think about what I want to read next. What story I want to dive into. And honestly, I am not sure what I will actually end up picking. I have quite the TBR stack full of classics and discipleship books. But I'm not really feeling interested in any of them. Not sure why. Thinking I may be hitting one of the phases where I don't want to and won't read very much. Part of that I think is that I am once again being faced with having to clean, sort and pack my house in order to move to a new house or apartment, so I am in

One of the many lovely ladies at one of my favorite blogs, The Broke and the Bookish , wrote this week's TOP TEN TUESDAY post and focused it on the books that she is resolved to read in the coming year. The only challenge or list I have committed to reading from is for the Classics Club. I tried to do a read-a-long/challenge last summer, but didn't like reading by a schedule. It was too much like school for me and that definitely sucks the joy out of reading for me. And I also didn't like committing to reading one set of books back to back. Sometimes I can do that (like right now I'm reading all of the Harry Potter books), but at other times I need to take a break after one or two books in a series. So, I am a bit hesitant at times to commit to saying that I am going to read specific books by a specific time. But, I thought that this weeks TOP TEN would be something that I could easily do because it's just picking 10 books that I want really to read at some point

Well, normally I would be asleep by this point in time. But since I am married to a youth minister and therefore a designated youth sponsor, I am spending my New Years at an all-nighter with about 300 junior high and high school students from some of the churches in our area. It's a crazy night. So much noise and so much going on. But everyone seems to be having a good time. But let's just say that I am very tired already. So between being tired and typing this post on my iPad, there may be a few more typos or errors than usual. It also means I can't format things the way I want to. But I may just go back in and re-do it when I've gotten some sleep. Either way, I apologize. I hope you won't judge me too badly or stop reading. That would make me sad. But anyway... It is a new year and that means that it's time to recap what I read in 2012 and get excited for what I'm going to read in 2013. With the way my blog is set up, I am going to replace the list